It was a truism that all civilizations were basically neurotic until they made contact with everybody else and found their place within the ever-changing meta-civilisation of other beings, because, until then, during the stage when they honestly believed they might be entirely alone in existence, all solo societies were possessed of both an inflated sense of their own importance and a kind of existential terror at the sheer scale and apparent emptiness of the universe.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Insane low back pump, even though the weights are still pretty light. Broscience claims this is what happens to steroid users. BRB experiencing roid side effects without actually using roids or getting any of the benefits. It feels quite different from pumping up any other muscle grup - I wonder if it's not really a pump, but some sort of inflammation?

Also I didn't really get how tough pulling from mid shin is on the lower back until I started doing it for reps - definitely not the same as deadlifting.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Went to see Hateful Eight. Great movie, but they could have cut out at least 45 minutes of it and it would have been just as great. Tarantino's movies are either terrific or awful IMO, and this one was definitely terrific.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Never even knew this muscle existed, but it does, and when it gets tight you start experiencing shooting pain through your shoulder and down your arm. Left shoulder has been bothering me (to various degrees of discomfort) throughout this last training cycle, and I was pretty sure I'd torn my rotator cuff or something. Turns out it's this little thing under my traps and to the side of my scapula. Did some targeted trigger point release on it yesterday and it hurts like hell.

Still on track with the planned bench press max-out, today I worked up to 295x1 with a long pause, then did some rear delt raises and biceps work.

8 January 2016

Bench press 315x2, 335x1, 365x1, 375xfail, 315x3

Pretty disappointed with this, but not devastated. My plan was to warm up to 335, then hit 365, 375 and go for either 380 or 385 on the last attempt, based on the numbers I hit in this training cycle and the 90% warmup on Monday. Unfortunately, I struggled to get 365 off the hooks and completely missed my groove, which resulted in a long and ragged single repetition that totally wore me out. My setup with 375 was perfect and I blasted the weight off the bottom, but it stalled around midpoint and sank back down.

At least it shouldn't take much to beat this 1RM in my next training cycle. But I'm still a long way off my all-time PR, so there's a lot of work to be done.

Bodyweight today was only 208.2, and this is after indulging in an all-you-can-eat buffet the day before. I have struggled to get my eating back on track after the holidays, but, unlike normal people, I seem to have no appetite and am constantly undereating. This also needs to change.

Seated cable rows 30 total reps

Incline bench press 4s x 8

DB curl 4s x 8-10

Pushdowns 4s x AMAP

Cable fly 2s x 10

9 January 2016

Squat 405x2, 425x2, 445x1, 445x1

Wanted to go for 445x2, but chickened out on both attempts. However, the weight is not important. What is important is that I didn't use knee wraps on any of the sets, and my bad knee felt fine. I won't jump the gun and proclaim it healed, but it's definitely a good indicator.